Jesperss

what do you expect for a reply? someone to be tar and feathered?

Jesperss

fair enough ^

Doc Savage

Yes, it's true, cattle is an endangered species and must be protected.

alanslegal

Eating only shark fin is cruel, I have seen enough documentaries to realise the inhumane treatment of shark fin harvesting.

That said its not uncommon in Australia, where I live, that people day in & day out, unknowingly eat shark meat.


http://www.marineconservation.org.au...flake-140.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flake_(fish)

username

So, your friend was the host and did not have a relationship with the restaurant. Yet, he still decided to do business with the restaurant after seeing shark fin on the menu and picked that course. Why? For the SPG points

I also find it interesting a Taiwanese would ask a Singapore friend to air the dirty laundry on Twitter and Flyertalk You know what the Chinese say - family scandals stay within the family

donotblink

One Mile at a Time just picked up this story: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...856.1447169031

I'm guessing that we're going to see a press release about this soon.

bocastephen

Personally I would have scolded the manager and walked out, but with a banquet hosting guests for the new year, that would not be a reasonable option - so the dish was served, it's water under the bridge, but the property needs to be taught that this is unacceptable going forward and suffer the public humiliation coming due through expanded coverage of this incident.

zebranz

Doc, Remember me? I liked you. Mess with Margarita Girl and you might be in for more than you can handle.......

She is more than I can handle!

imverge

I applauded Starwood when they came out and committed to not serving shark fin at their properties.

This does not make Starwood look good and their credibility is in the toilet.

This situation needs to be investigated

Starwood Lurker

As many of you already know, Starwood instituted a global ban on shark fin soup in 2014 and we take that commitment very seriously.

It was very unfortunate that the Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel did not follow that ban. It has since been removed from their menu and we have assurances that it will not be served again.

We apologize for what happened.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Doc Savage

Not an ex, I hope....


I still owe you a birthday beer, I think.

tboons

Hello William,

Thank you for coming on here. This is a typical apology reply but this does not have to restore the credibility or assure us on the commitment to the pledge. Has Starwood even audit the restaurants in the different hotels. I would not be shocked to see other restaurants under SPG brands selling shark fins, violating the commitment. Is there any current process to ensure that indeed, other hotels and restaurants remain committed to the pledge since 2014? You have to be much stronger than just issue an apology. You need to restore the credibility and confidence in the CSR branding!

Starwood recently just announced on the goal towards cage free eggs by 2020. Even if that goal has been reached, how can we be assured that the hotels will be actually following through the policies by the HQ? Are you still credible?

I would expect more from SPG because SPG has a very strong CSR policies and this is a form of marketing and differentiating the branding from others. We need assurance that all the commitment by SPG has been followed through.

Regarding the shark fin incident, it would have been appropriate to donate the revenue from the sale of shark fin towards an appropriate cause relating to marine life conservation.

tboons

From onemileatatime,

"As you stated, Starwood instituted a global ban on shark fin soup in 2014 and we take that very seriously. It was very unfortunate that the Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel did not follow that ban. It has since been removed from their menu and we have assurances that it will not be served again. We apologize for what happened. We are not aware of any other instances of it being served and we are communicating to all Starwood properties in Asia Pacific to reiterate our global ban. If you learn of it being served currently, please let us know and we will act immediately."

It is great that they have extended the memo to other Asia Pacific properties and taking action to ensure the compliance! much better than the first responses that starwood gave.

BOSTransplant

While I agree that the hotel should definitely be reprimanded by corporate and reminded of the policy, I think it's a little overboard to say that Starwood's credibility is in the toilet. They have almost 1,300 hotels, and one of them violated a policy. It sounds like the menu has been adjusted and the hotel has been reminded of the policy going forward. Unless SPG properties in the region make a habit of violating the policy going forward, there's nothing else that needs to be said or done about the incident.

christianj

+1 and let's not forget that policing something like this has to be incredibly difficult. I can understand that the OP and others are upset but I just don't understand what they expect to happen other than what has already been done by Starwood. For all we know there were things done at the hotel like the firing of the chef or manager but that is not something we are going to hear about on here from Starwood. They have issued an apology and followed up on the issue...time to move on IMHO!